Measures target Donbass rebuilders, patriotic education of children, shipping and nuclear energy
The US government on Wednesday announced new sanctions against more than 80 people, vessels and companies it is accused of. “enable and facilitate” Russian actions in Ukraine. Among the embargoed entities are construction and recycling companies, companies rebuilding war-torn Donbass, children’s camps and even subsidiaries of nuclear energy giant Rosatom.
Companies allegedly linked to oligarch Alisher Usmanov at the head of the State Department announcement announcement, starting with his company USM Holding. The sanctions apply to its software, telecommunications, iron and gold mining and even recycling subsidiaries. Two cement companies, one for the Russian domestic market and the other for Uzbekistan’s domestic needs, were also blacklisted.
All companies have been sanctioned for “be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly”, Usmanov and his possessions. However, the US Treasury Department intends to issue four waivers allowing “some activities with a number” sanctioned entities.
27 other entities – including 19 vessels – have been blacklisted for “facilitating sanctions-busting activities through international transhipment.” This includes Russian leasing company GTLK and its CEO Yevgeny Ditrikh, shipping company Novelco and its CEO Grigory Grigoriev.
Two Turkey-based companies, Artvin and Salda, were sanctioned for supplying “financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services for or in support of” sanctioned Russian companies. Ankara is a member of NATO and an ally of Washington, but has not joined US and European sanctions against Moscow.
Lawyer Christodoulos Vassiliades and his network – including several companies, two of his children, and a “key partner” – have been described as “prolific enablers of a number of Russian oligarchs” and placed on the sanctions list. Vassiliades himself was sanctioned by the UK for serving on the board of directors of Sberbank, the State Department noted.
“Youth Army” or the All-Russian Military Patriotic Public Movement of Children and Youth, an organization created by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, was sanctioned for “weaponize and propagandize schoolchildren in the occupied areas of Ukraine [sic].” So has the Crimea Patriot Center, a state-funded institution that provides “military-patriotic education” to Russian youth.
The United States also blacklisted Norilsk Nickel board member Alexey Bashkirov and seven companies. “related” to him – including one in the United Arab Emirates and five in Cyprus. Deputy Prime Minister of Construction and Regional Development Marat Khusnullin was only described as being “involved in the development of military-related infrastructure in occupied Ukraine [sic].”
China HEAD Aerospace Technology Company, a reseller of satellite imagery, was sanctioned for allegedly providing photos to Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Wagner Group’s private military company. Patriot PMC, described as a competitor to Wagner “associated to” Defense Minister Shoigu was also sanctioned.
Wednesday’s list was rounded out by five entities associated with the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom, which the State Department has accused of using “energy exports, including in the nuclear sector, to exert political and economic pressure on its customers on a global scale.
The designations freeze any property these individuals and entities may have in the United States or under American control, and prohibit all Americans — or those transiting through U.S. territory — from doing business with them without the specific approval from Washington.